Chapter 62: Inquisition Stereotypes |
A perfect naval battle.
An overwhelming victory.
But in Romulus’ eyes, such a naval battle was just plain boring.
Of course, boring was a good thing—it meant low pressure, minimal casualties, and dependable teammates.
At first, he thought they’d need to ride melta assault boats to board and brawl with the Word Bearers' Space Marines or something.
But after the Inquisition fleet moved in to pin down the Word Bearers, the Explorator Fleet’s concentrated plasma fire quickly overloaded the enemy’s void shields. Then, a few nova cannon shots turned those warships into cosmic trash.
The last Desolator-class Battleship had its core overloaded under the boarding assault of the two Chapters. Once the battle-brothers had evacuated, it began to collapse under the “Dawn”’s lance bombardment.
As for the Word Bearers they boarded...
Let’s just say they died with style. At the very least, they gave Romulus a ton of live combat data that would no doubt be run through spreadsheets countless times.
Fragments of shattered warships drifted through space. The Chaos-tainted metal held no salvage value in this situation.
Romulus, who had hoped to learn a few new tricks, stared at the battle report.
Then looked up at the Inquisition cruisers still chasing down the scattered escort ships.
His mind was full of nothing but firepower doctrine. From the bottom of his heart, he believed the best way to win a naval battle was to produce massive fleets, bring the strongest firepower, and hire the best cogboys.
As long as your fleet is bigger, your range is longer, and your computing power is enough—you win, no matter what.
Still, wasn’t this a bit too smooth? They got control of the sub-sector this easily—wouldn’t the ground campaign be a walk in the park too?
But reality is never as rosy as you'd like.
Arthur and Ramses, having wrapped up interrogation and cleanup, returned to the bridge together.
“All done with the interrogation.”
They uploaded the interrogation records through internal channels and tossed the physical backup to Romulus. He casually grabbed a handful of cherries from Garna’s fruit bowl.
“Mmm, still sweet as ever.”
“You just grabbed a third of a Nurgle daemon.”
Garna narrowed his eyes.
“......”
Ramses’ throat twitched. He suddenly felt like those cherries were stuck halfway down.
Romulus shook his head and started reading the interrogation records.
【Word Bearers: A combined force made up of four warbands. 1,218 Chaos Space Marines (369 confirmed KIA), fleet assets (destroyed)】
【Objective: Set a trap to lure the Avengers patrol battalion, use Chaos sorcery to possess members of three companies, and recapture the Queen of Glory “Chronicle of Ashes.”】
【Planetary control: Insufficient. Did not seize control of critical surface facilities (e.g., ground-based void shields, surface-level AA defenses).】
【Strategic deployment: Unknown. After hijacking the cruiser “Pride of Terra,” major conflict broke out on the surface. Contact with ground forces severed. Last confirmed location of ground forces: ruins of the Administratum department in the upper hive.】
【Any prior cooperation with the Inquisition: Yes. Unilateral non-aggression agreement reached with an Inquisitor calling himself “the Seeker.”】
“These Word Bearers are seriously pathetic.”
Romulus finished reading the report.
Other than their own plan, they seemed to know less about the planet than the Joint Fleet did.
“Right? I kind of regret it now. We lost a batch of hard-earned Pokémon just to destroy the evidence.”
Ramses looked genuinely disappointed—he’d spent forever taming those daemons. If they didn’t contribute some KPIs to the Four Gods soon, they’d vanish forever. And now they’d been wasted on this measly bit of intel.
Because everyone knew what Chaos daemons and traitors were made of. Even after they were done being useful—you couldn’t let them go.
Only one option: kill.
“This is what we got from interrogating the Word Bearers.”
After dumbing down their objective to simply possessing Avengers warriors to cause greater chaos, Romulus sent the report to the rest of the Joint Fleet.
Aglaea spoke first.
“Sir Kebar, please respond if you can hear this.”
Aglaea was very self-aware. Since she was the one who initiated this operation, naturally her faction should take on the risks.
“Lady Aglaea, Captain Kebar was unfortunately killed in the earlier battle. I am his acting replacement—you may call me Ashton.”
“......”
Feeling the eyes gathering behind her, Aglaea felt like she was sitting on needles.
She really hadn’t planned to do anything to Kebar.
Back when she was studying in the Grand Archive, the workplace bullying she endured was way worse. Those losers were still working just fine in the Administratum on Terra.
But you just couldn’t fight the way Inquisition nuts spiraled into their own logic.
After all, facing an Inquisitor who literally had their family trees on file, a captain who’d previously defied her gave these noble brats zero sense of security.
Hmm... kinda understandable, now that she thought about it. If it were her, she might’ve taken the guy out too.
Aglaea rubbed her temples.
The time she spent aboard the “Dawn” during the warp voyage seemed to have made her soft.
But feeling the stares behind her full of “Oh, so this is what the Inquisition is like,” Aglaea’s face darkened. She silently cursed the jerks who had secretly executed the captain.
D*** it. It’s clowns like them who ruin the Source Retrieval Order’s reputation.
She cursed under her breath and spoke up.
“Captain Ashton, how long until fleet cleanup is complete?”
As her voice fell, the Inquisition fleet, still mechanically chasing down the remaining resistance, suddenly entered high-speed cruise mode—completely ignoring their own damage as they began an all-out purge.
“Lady Aglaea, fleet cleanup complete. Please issue the next order.”
About fifteen minutes later, the tense report came through.
“......”
Feeling the shift in the stares behind her to a silent “Yup, called it. This is the Inquisition,” Aglaea let out a helpless sigh.
She could take being judged by anyone—but not by the four Ancient Warriors behind her.
“Verify operational status of the planet’s orbital defense platforms. Prioritize use of Chaos warship wreckage and test their ID codes.”
Aglaea glanced at the transmigrators, then continued.
“You are permitted to transfer the decoy ship.”
“Thank you for your mercy, my lady.”
Captain Ashton let out a breath of relief. He quietly tossed a list requiring confidential handling to his subordinates, then sent shuttles toward the decoy vessel.
About an hour later, two empty Chaos and Imperial escort ships were deployed toward planetary orbit.
“Report: No signs of high-energy plasma reaction detected.”
“Proceed.”
Feeling the vibration through her wrist, Aglaea’s expression was blank.